English-language short comic attracts the attention of the real-life teen who inspired it.

Earlier this month, life seemed to be imitating anime as Japanese Twitter user @Elmon_0715’s penchant for crossdressing was discovered by one of his friends when he posted a picture of himself done up as a cute girl. In the exchange of messages that followed, the friend said he’d keep the teen’s secret…provided he’d agree to go out with him.

It’s unclear how serious the proposal was, but if taken at face value it dovetails with the rest of the details in seeming like it could easily be the premise of a manga or anime in the boys’ love genre. As a matter of fact, the whole thing sounded so much like a boys’ love series that artist and Twitter user @Thebakex2 went ahead and drew up a cover illustration for a fictional dojinshi, or independently-produced Japanese comic, with the title There’s No Way My Friend Can Be This Cute! (a joking reference to actual anime series My Little Sister Can’t Be This Cute).

But even though he tweeted the cover with the declaration that he wouldn’t actually be drawing a comic, the very next day @Thebakex2 did a 180 and drew the first page of his story, which picks up right after the real-life date request and treats it as an earnest overture, and one that gets the crossdressing teen both excited and flustered over choosing what to wear for the outing.

一ページ。@Elmon_0715 https://t.co/vQG8YvOAJX

— バケx2 (@Thebakex2) November 24, 2017

@Thebakex2 doesn’t seem to be a native speaker of English or Japanese, but he posted the first page of the comic in both languages. The page ends with “to be continue (?)”, but just as with his initial reluctance to draw anything more than the cover, @Thebakex2 once again changed his mind and drew another page, where the crossdressing teen’s attire once again produces a very different reaction from his friend than he’d initially expected.

約束どおりこれは西郷のペエジです。今までアリガトウございます! @Elmon_0715 https://t.co/7194B0Epr9

— バケx2 (@Thebakex2) November 27, 2017

The second page, despite being in English, was accompanied by a slightly garbled Japanese message from @Thebakex2, saying, roughly, “As promised, here’s the final page. Thanks for reading!” However, @Thebakex2 ended up getting plenty of thanks himself for the comic, including a message from the crossdresser who inspired it all.

▼ @Elmon_0715: “Thank you for going to all the trouble to draw these!”

@Thebakex2 わざわざありがとうございました！

— ▫️エルも▪️ (@Elmon_0715) November 27, 2017

So who knows, maybe that gratitude from @Elmon_0715 will inspire @Thebakex2 to once again keep the comic going longer than he’d originally intended.